MMWPP: the Story Behind the Marauders, Year One
by Scarllette LaBelle
Summary: The story all begins with James Potter and Sirius Black. Once at Hogwarts, they find two new friends almost immediately. Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. Together they become the best of friends. Follow them through laughs and detentions.
1. Owls and Visitors

Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot & Prongs:  
the Story Behind the Marauders

_(Some of the names I have made up, otherwise, all characters, even the ones just mentioned in the Harry Potter books, belong to J. K. Rowling, not me.)_

Chapter One,_ Owls & Visitors_

The time of the year had come for the young James Potter, as it had for many young witches and wizards alike, to receive their owl to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a school consisting of four Houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin, each House, of course, named after the four founders: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. Gryffindor being the Houseof which the most good witches and wizards came, and Slytherin being the House reputable with the lot of the Dark wizards, those of whom include He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

James, a child nearly twelve with messy hair that could not be kept out of his eyes, was laying out in the garden of their home talking to Sirius, James' best friend of the same age with slightly longer black hair and spectacular gray eyes.

"Got your letter yet?" asked a curious James, rolling over onto his stomach to talk to Sirius.

"Mhm," he mumbled a reply. "Me mum wasn' all tha' thrilled. Said she knew I'd get in all along.. what with all the magic that I've been doing.." He took another bite out of his apple, "You?"

"Oh yeah, I got it about a month ago. Bit exciting really. Of course I knew I would get in, ha, but it was just.. a weird feeling I got when our owl flew in and made its crash landing on my face." James pointed at the long thin scratch on his cheek while Sirius rolled over, spitting bits of apple everywhere in a fit of laughter.

"I can see you now! 'Look mum! Me letter has come!' and then, and then, the owl just HA!" his hands moving elaborately, envisioning an owl flying in and landing on James' face. "Weird feeling it must've been! Never had an owl to land on my face, and I reckon I don't want it to happen anytime soon, either!"

"What I meant," replied James with a somewhat amused look on his face, "was that I got a weird feeling when I held the letter and read it.."

"I know what you meant!"

"Yeah.. ok." He rolled back over on his back and continued to stare at the clouds.

"Hey look, James. That one looks like a Phoenix." Sirius pointed with the hand that contained the apple, the other one being used to prop up his head.

"We're going into Diagon Alley tomorrow to get all my school supplies. Want to come with?"

"Sure! That'd be great. I'll just have to ask me mum though, but I'm almost sure she'd be glad to get rid of me as much as she can!" They both laughed, and continued to gaze up into the sky which had now turned a light shade of midnight blue to signify that night was coming, and it was coming fast.

As they lay there, James heard a sound of rustling leaves over by the herb garden along a side of the east wall. Thinking it was just the wind, he ignored it. Then he heard it again. Sirius propped himself up on his elbow.

"What?"

"I thought I saw something over there.." He got up and went to investigate. "_Lumos_," he whispered to his wand as he withdrew it from the waist of his pants. The wands' tip illuminated the near darkness under the hydrangea bush. "Hey, get over here. It's a gnome.."

"Gnomes.. stupid.. gits.." Sirius muttered, throwing the core of his apple into the compost heap on the opposite side of the garden.

James on one side and Sirius on the other, they cornered the gnome, Sirius grabbed it by the heels, swung it over his head and let go. They stood there and watched it sail far off into the field behind the Potter house, landing just before the edge of the woods.

"I say, a nice throw. I think that beat the last time!"

Sirius smiled and shook James' hand. "What say you we go inside and get some dinner?"

"Sounds good to me. Kind of smells like we're having.. roast beef."

"Oh, good!" Sarcasm oozing over every bit of the words, Sirius followed James inside.

"Aye, Sirius, James. Dinner's almost ready. Sit down, won't you?" James' mother had suddenly appeared out of nowhere carrying a heavy cauldron. She was dressed in a violently purple sweater, obviously hand knitted with a long black velvet skirt. Her hair was long, black and shiny. She had a smile on her face as she greeted Sirius. Her hair was pulled up into a loose bun, sitting neatly on top of her head. The kitchen was a cozy little kitchen, and now had a large table with seven chairs around it. Usually it had just a small table with four chairs, the fourth chair being for Sirius. He hardly ever stayed at home nowadays, so the Potters got quite accustomed to having him around. They often thought of Sirius as being much like a second son, to James, like a brother.

"I smelled roast beef.. I still smell it.. but where is it?" James asked, looking around the kitchen. Mrs. Potter has set the cauldron down in the empty fireplace on the far left wall, and was waving her wand around above it in complicated motions. "Aye, we are having roast beef, but it's not ready yet. It's in the cauldron, see?" She moved out of the way so James could look down into the now full cauldron of boiling water.

"Don't you think that's a bit much?"

"Of course not. My only concern is that it would be just enough. Didn't I tell you? Your father's invited a few people over from work."

"Why am I always last to know everything? The cat knows more than I do!" Sirius let out a laugh and quickly covered it up with a cough when James shot a daring look at him.

"It must've slipped my mind then. Go wash up dears." She turned back around and was stirring the water inside the cauldron magically with her wand, while floating spice bottles flew around her adding various herbs and such to the steaming water.

"Hey, can Sirius come with us to Diagon Alley tomorrow?"

"If his mother will let him, I'd be delighted to bring him along," staring down into the cauldron, she looked up and gave Sirius a motherly smile.

"Thanks. James is awful lucky to have a mother like you.." Sirius said, looking at James with a grin on his face. James looked questioningly at Sirius, then ran over to his mother, nearly knocking her down, hugged her and said, "Yes I know! She's zee best mother in zee WHOOOOOLE world!"

Sirius and James rolled with laughter and headed up to James' bedroom.

"Oh, you two, honestly! Go wash up, and make sure you look presentable!" Mrs. Potter gave with a laugh, returning to her roast beef.

- - - - -

When James and Sirius returned, the four visitors of whom the three extra chairs had been set out for had arrived. Mr. Potter was sitting at the table, deep in conversation with what it looked like, a Ministry worker.

"Ah, James, Sirius! So glad you could finally turn up! I'd like you to meet some very important," he emphasized 'important', "people from the Ministry!" he looked at the people, who stood to shake James and Sirius' hands. "This, is Dometrius Warluff. He works in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office." James' father introduced him with a smile. He was wearing new plain black robes, his hair falling in odd layers, much like James'.

He stood to shake James and Sirius' hands in turns. "Very pleased to meet you." Mr. Warluff was wearing long midnight blue robes, with a pointed wizards hat perched on top of his nearly balding head. "Your father talks quite fondly of you, but he mentions that you can be a bit of a trouble maker at times. Is this true?"

"Um, well.." James shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. "Um, at times, I guess I can be.." Embarrassed as his ears turned red, but no one could see them, though, for his hair had gotten in the way again after all that combing to make sure it laid straight, but this only made it worse.

"Never you mind that, you seem like a nice boy to me." Mr. Warluff gave an approving smile and returned to his seat.

"This," gesturing over to the man to the right of Dometrius, "is Albus Dumbledore, Chief of the Wizengamot and Hogwarts Headmaster."

James' eyes widened.

"Pleased to meet you, James. I understand that you have received your letter? As well as young Sirius here?" He took his time to speak as if it seemed he had all the time in the world. His long beard was a blond colour and his eyes, sparkly blue behind his half-moon glasses. He smiled at James as he and Sirius took in the way he was dressed. Elaborate purple robes with gold and silver stars and crescent moons embroidered on it with a gold sash tied at his waist. His long blond hair was trailing beneath his hat, tied into a neat pony tail along the back. His hat was also purple with the same stars and moons embroidered onto it.

"Yes. Yes, sir, we have." James looked more frightened than he sounded, most likely because he was used to being questioned for things that he claimed he had never done. He sounded almost calm as he answered Dumbledore.

"I shall be awaiting your presence at my school then. September 1st, as always." He let go of James' hand and shook Sirius', taking special care in what expression he wore on his face. Apparently he got it wrong, because James prodded him hard in the ribs.

"And this," gesturing once again to the right of the last person, "is Bartemius Crouch, Sr., Minister of Magic." Mr. Potter looked very proud to have introduced him to James for his eyes were glowing and his voice had taken on an air of confidence.

Crouch said nothing, but held out his hand. James obediently took it. He was wearing green robes and had taken off matching green hat and was holding it in the other hand. James noticed that his hair, a dark brown colour, was starting to go a bit gray.

"Pleasure to meet you, sir." James broke the silence. "I've heard loads about you all, what you do in the Ministry and all. Must get very tiring, doing all that work."

There was laughter about the kitchen and James gave a nervous laugh. "You could help me a bit here." he shot at Sirius out of the corner of his mouth.

Sirius leaned over and replied, "I could, but you're doing a splendid job of it yourself. Oh, and," he paused to look at James, "stop turning red. You're embarrassing me." He grinned at James who turned around and glanced at his father. He tipped his head, which was a signal that he could sit down now. He did so quickly because the strength was quickly draining from his legs.

"Dinner almost ready, m'dear?" He smiled over at his wife.

"Almost. Just a little bit of," she waved her wand and one of the spice jars tipped over in mid-air and shook three times, and the water in the cauldron stopped boiling. "That's it."

She fished the roast beef out of the cauldron and set it on a nicely decorated platter with sprigs of parsley for colour. She poured some of the steaming broth over the roast beef for additional flavour, then sent a knife and fork flying to cut it up. Seven shining white china from the cabinet landed in front of them, accompanied by fork, spoon, and knife. She then set another small cauldron that James had not noticed before onto the table, it's steam rising to the ceiling and the lingering smell of vegetable soup in the air, making everyone's mouth water.

"Ah, Arabella! I have long awaited to taste your fine cooking!" Dumbledore looked longingly at the cauldron and roast beef and rubbed his hands together. "William speaks too highly of your cooking. Always saying how I should come over and sample it, but of course, I have always been too busy, but I am here now, so what say you we eat, hm?"

Mr. Potter looked very pleased with his company, and was glancing toward James and Sirius, giving them odd looks, which they quickly understood that they meant to behave.

James and Sirius nodded quickly. No one seemed to be talking now but Dumbledore, but they were either listening or ignoring every word he said, obviously trying to concentrate on their meal.

"Have you got your supplies yet, James? And you, Sirius?" Dumbledore asked, looking up from his already half empty plate and bowl.

"Some butter bread with that soup, sir?" Arabella asked politely ask Dumbledore stared into his bowl.

"Oh, that would be delightful, thank you." He gave an approving smile and turned back to James.

"No, sir. We're going into Diagon Alley tomorrow, me and Sirius-"

"Sirius and I."

"Yes, sir, Sirius and I, to get all our supplies."

"Very polite indeed, William. You should be proud."

"I am, sir, very proud." A grin crept slowly up Mr. Potters face as he took another bite of what looked like green beans that were trying to walk across his plate. He quickly jabbed a fork in them, and they dropped where they were.

"Enchanted green beans. Such a bother really, but delicious, I'll give them that." Dumbledore mumbled as he speared his own. "Quite delicious, Arabella. I don't believe I've had a more wonderful supper!"

Mrs. Potter blushed pink as she was complimented. "Thank you kindly, sir."

"Why does everyone have to call me 'sir'? I am but a wizard, same as the rest of you. I have done nothing great."

"But, sir, you're the head of the Wizengamot! Shouldn't we call you 'sir'?" James asked, amusement in his voice as he watched Sirius trying so desperately at his attempts to spear his green beans. He finally gave up and started using his hands. James picked up his fork, aimed, and hit it on the first try. Dumbledore pondered this question, but never answered.

"Thanks." Sirius mumbled.

"Don't mention it." James grinned.

The rest of dinner much went on like this; Dumbledore asking questions, Sirius fighting his food, Mr. and Mrs. Potter looking very pleased to have such high ranking people into their kitchen, although this hadn't been the first time. They had many people over from the Ministry plenty of times, but never the Minister of Magic and the Headmaster at the most popular wizarding school in Britain.

James glanced nervously at his watch which had stopped working after he and Sirius went after a plimpy, a round fish with two long legs and webbed feet, they saw floating at the top of the lake, just beyond the trees out back. Apparently it had gotten into a fight with other plimpies because its legs were tied together. Thinking it would be fun to go after the stranded creature to untie its legs, they dove in, clothes and all to retrieve it. James was torn from his memory by Crouch, who rose and replaced his hat, patting his stomach.

"Well I think it's high time we'd better get going." Crouch said looking at the clock on the wall.

"Oh, dear. Just as I was about to ask Arabella if she had made some pie. I do favour raspberry." Dumbledore looked quite sad at this, in which Mrs. Potter stood.

"William told me how you liked raspberries, and we have so many raspberry vines out growing in the garden, so I thought I'd put them to good use. I've never made a pie with raspberries in it, but I did make you some jam." She wrapped up the jars in light blue cloth and set them neatly in a basket.

"Thank you very much." He paused to smile, "William, she's a keeper!" He winked at William.

"Yes, I know. That's why I picked her and not anyone else." He smiled lovingly at his wife who blushed pink once more.

"Well, William, I'll be seeing you at work tomorrow?" Crouch asked, walking to the door.

"Bright and early!"

"I got an idea." James mumbled to Sirius.

"What?"

"Can you stay the night?"

A grin swelled on Sirius' face. "If mum won't let me, I'll throw a fit."

"Good."

As the Ministry of Magic officials walked out, (after Dumbledore had planted a light kiss on Arabella's cheek in thanks, of course, for the jam) William trailing behind them, bidding them goodnight, James turned to his mother and asked if Sirius could spend then night.

"Oh, all right. Let me just ask his mother first." She took out a little bag of Floo powder, threw it in the fire and said "Number twelve, Grimmauld Place!" and stuck her head into the green flames. She called for Sirius' mother and when she returned from the fire, she was smiling. "Your mum said you can stay, Sirius, but only if you don't cause any trouble."

"You know me, Mrs. Potter. Sweet as sugar, and as innocent as I'll ever be!" he beamed at her.

She gave a warm smile and the two headed off to bed.


	2. Into Diagon Alley

Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot & Prongs:  
the Story Behind the Marauders

Chapter 2:_ Into Diagon Alley_

The morning of August 30, 1971 was a dreadful, rainy morning. James and Sirius awoke with a start at the sound of thunder and a flash of light quickly following it.

"Ugh. Rain." James said, gazing out into the garden with a sigh.

Sirius, on the other hand was particularly happy that it was raining. His cool gray eyes sparkled in the reflection of the window. "Let's go out and run in it!" he said, pulling himself away from the window to grab his old, muddy rain boots.

"Are you crazy!" James looked at him in astonishment.

"How nice of you to notice! And you've known me for how long now?"

James shook his head and turned back to the window. "You can go, but if you get hit by lightning, don't say I didn't warn you."

"How can I? I'd be dead."

"True, but see, then I'd have no brother."

Sirius' eyes grew dull. "Right. Hey, let's go get breakfast. I'm hungry."

"Sounds good to me!"

James got up and followed Sirius out of the room and down two flights of stairs, following the smell of bacon and sausage that had wound its way up the staircase.

"About time you two got up!" Mrs. Potter exclaimed as she set a plate of sausage in front of Sirius. He proceeded to take the whole plate.

"Hey, wait! Share!" James said, yanking the plate of sausages away from Sirius after dumping half of them on his plate.

"Ok, so we're going to Gringotts first.." mumbled Mrs. Potter, with a piece of bacon in one hand and a checklist in the other. "James, you need a new wand so you won't have to use your fathers old one anymore."

As she talked, she paced across the kitchen, James and Sirius glancing at each other, nibbling on bits of toast, laughing at this bizarre behaviour.

"Then to Flourish and Blotts after you two get your wands.." She stopped in the middle of the kitchen and attempted to write something down with the piece of bacon. "No, wait.. that's not right.." She stuck the piece in her mouth and pulled a quill out of nowhere and jotted down a few extra notes.

"Then the Apothecary.." She waved her wand and a huge frying pan sailed from the stove top to their plates, providing them with plates full of steaming scrambled eggs. James grabbed the salt, Sirius, the pepper, then switched off.

"What about our robes?" Sirius asked, brandishing a fork full of eggs.

"Ah, yes, thank you Sirius.. Madame Malkins.." She smiled and wrote down a few more notes. "I wish you two the best of luck this year, and James, if I get a letter from Dumbledore saying that you've been misbehaving, it'll be your neck, understood?"

"Yes, mum." James lied, grinning the most mischievous grin he could muster.

"See, she favours me.." Sirius said, leaning over to James.

"Oh, your mum'll not be too happy if she was to get a letter either, Sirius," she said, a look of warning in her eyes.

He had no reply to this, but simply grinned alongside James.

Moments later, saving James and Sirius from further lecture, Mr. Potter came bursting through the back door dripping water everywhere.

"Oh, Will. I just mopped."

"No you didn't.. the mop did.. see? It's in the living room.." he motioned toward the far corner of the living room where it was chasing dust bunnies out from underneath the couch.

"Oh.. _Accio mop!_" The mop glided across the floor and slid into Mrs. Potter's outstretched hand.

"So kids, ready for Diagon Alley?"

Sirius and James gave shouts of delight.

"Since it's so rainy out, I thought we might go by Floo powder. Do you have any, m'dear?" he asked gazing into his wife's eyes.

"I think I have a little bit left." She went over to the fireplace to check the little terra cotta pot hanging in a wire holder. "Mhm.. just enough I think. I shall have to get some more when I have the time.."

"Ready?" asked Mr. Potter, a half smile on his face, turning to take off his rain coat. He hung it on one of the pegs beside the door, then, one by one, removed his boots and put on a clean pair of loafers to match his midnight blue cloaks. He stepped up onto the hearth and motioned for James and Sirius to come.

James stepped into the fireplace, threw the Floo powder down and said, quite loudly, "_Diagon Alley!_" The flames turned green and he disappeared. He could see flashes of other wizards homes, a few of which were watching their fireplaces.

Sirius was next up. He did the same as James, then the flames turned green. He too saw flashes of wizarding homes. When he finally reached Diagon Alley, he found James leaning against a wall and laughing at the sight of Sirius.

"Rough trip?"

"Did you see that couple sitting next to the fire?"

"Yeah.."

"Well they decided to roast marshmallows..." He looked down and tried to get as much of the sticky stuff off his shirt as possible.

James, however was rolling with laughter. "HA! Look at you! Well, lets wait 'til mum and dad get here, then we'll make a trip into the ice cream shop and see if we can't get that off." His laughter started up again.

A few moments later, Mr. and Mrs. Potter showed up at their side, Mr. Potter, too, brandishing a marshmallow on his robes.

"Ah, couldn't they have waited a few more moments? I tell you.. lovesick couples these days. I'll be right back. I'm going to go apologize to them." He soon Disapparated to the couples door. He knocked three times and waited. He heard a glass drop to the floor and break

"Who is it?" a nervous voice at the door answered.

"William Potter. I came to apologize about the marshmallows." There was amusement in his voice.

The face of whom the voice belonged to appeared at the door. "Oh that's quite all right.."

"Well I'll just be going then. Good day!" He tipped his hat, turned, and with a pop, Apparated back to Diagon Alley. "Now that _that's_ settled, shall we go wash this off?"

"Oh no worries. I already got Sirius'," Mrs. Potter said with a smile. "Here, let me. _Scourgify_!" and just like that, the marshmallow had completely disappeared.

"Thank you, m'dear!" He caught his wife up in a hug.

Mrs. Potter blushed pink. "You're welcome. On to Gringotts now!" and with that she set off down the street, making their way through crowds of people. "Keep up now," she said, looking back every once in a while, making sure they were still trailing along. "Don't want you two kidnaped."

"Aw, mum!"

"Now, don't argue with me, James." Waving a finger at James, she turned around once more. "Not another word."

They soon arrived at the snowy white marble building, climbed the marble stairs and reached the beautiful bronze doors. A goblin dressed in a business suit was standing at the doors. He bowed at them and the doors swung open. They reached a second set of doors, this time silver ones, with words engraved upon them:

_Enter, stranger, but take heed  
__Of what awaits the sin of greed,  
__For those who take, but do not earn,  
__Must pay most dearly in their turn.  
__So if you seek beneath our floors  
__A treasure that was never yours,  
__Thief, you have been warned, beware  
__Of finding more than treasure there._

"'_...finding more than treasure there.'?_ What's that mean?" James turned to his father.

"Well it's said that there are dragons guarding the most secretive vaults. They run a hundred miles underground London. Go down there and you go mad trying to find your way out, so it didn't really matter if you found what you were looking for in the end."

James gave an odd look. "Aye, well. I guess I won't be going treasure hunting for a while then, will I?"

Sirius laughed, while a nearby goblin eyed them suspiciously.

They entered a great huge room with goblins everywhere, writing with quills and showing visitors off to their safes. Mr. Potter looked up at one of the goblins and said, business-like, "We've come to make a withdrawal from Mr. James Potter and Mr. Sirius Black's safes."

"And do they have their keys?"

Mr. Potter nodded.

"Very well then," and the goblin hopped off his stool. He disappeared for a moment and appeared suddenly out of a little door that opened coming from the podium of which he was moments ago perched. "Follow me."

Mr. and Mrs. Potter, James, and Sirius did so. They went through one of the doors, waited for the goblin and climbed, one by one, into the cart, Mr. Potter helping them in.

The little cart soon started speeding off in different directions, every once in a while taking very sharp turns to the left and the right. Clearly it was steering itself because the goblin was turned in the other direction. Mr. Potter looked very sick and had his eyes closed. James grinned.

The cart sank lower and lower and then came to a sudden stop. Sirius felt like he was going to fall out and grabbed onto James with one hand, and the edge of the cart with the other.

James just gave him an odd look.

Mr. Potter looked very relieved to have gotten out of the cart.

"Vault six hundred and ninety-two, Mr. James Potter," the goblin took the key and opened it. The large door swung slowly open. Behind it was stacks of gold Galleons, silver Sickles and bronze Knuts everywhere.

James' mouth opened wide.

"Yes, James, this is all yours. Your mother and I have been saving for quite a while so you can have enough money when you move out, buy a house and all that."

He thought to say thank you but the words got caught in his throat. Mr. Potter stepped inside with an empty leather pouch, and soon returned with it bulging, full of wizard money.

"Here you go," he said smiling. "That ought to be enough for your books and some for lunch on the Hogwarts Express."

"Thanks," he found his voice.

"On to Mr. Black's vault now?" asked the goblin, looking up into Mr. Potter's smiling face.

"Yes, and could we slow it down a bit?"

"One speed only."

Mr. Potter groaned, clutched his stomach and reluctantly climbed back into the cart, which as soon as he set foot in, it took off. He fell backwards onto his seat.

The cart came to a sudden stop once again, just as it had picked up speed.

"Vault eight hundred and thirteen."

Sirius stepped out of the cart with Mr. Potter and he handed the goblin the key. The goblin took it, unlocked the door and swung slowly open. There were piles of wizard money inside. Mr. Potter handed Sirius his leather pouch.

"Now don't go overboard. You won't need much."

Sirius walked into the vault and came back out, his pouch bulging like James'.

"Is that all today, sir?" the goblin wobbled out from behind the door and closed it, taking the key and locking it back.

"Yes. Thank you."

Sirius climbed back into the cart and instead of going forwards, the cart started shooting off back to the entrance backwards.

"Oh, dear," muttered Mr. Potter, trying to keep his eyes closed.

When they returned to Diagon Alley, Mr. Potter wiped his forehead with his handkerchief and stuffed it back into his pocket.

"Remind me never to do that again," he whispered in his wife's ear.

She simply nodded and was soon directing the three of them throughout the street.

"James, dear? Did you bring your list?"

He opened his mouth, but soon realized that he left it on his night table beside his bed.

"No worries. I picked it up for you." She took the heavy parchment letter with emerald green writing on it and took out the lists. "Madam Malkins is closest, so I'll read off your robe list."

First year students will require:  
1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)  
2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear  
3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar) _("We'll go get those after you're done with your robes," his mother added.)  
_4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)  
Please note all pupils' clothes should carry name tags

She folded up the letters, gave them to James and said "I've got Sirius' too, so that we'll know what books to get. Ah, here's Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. James and Sirius, go get your robes and we'll take care of your books. Do _not_ leave until we come back."

"Yes, mum," James replied, looking disappointed.

"Sirius?"

"Yes, ma'am.." he replied.

"Good. In you go," and she shoved them through the door.

"Ah, customers! Come for your Hogwarts robes?" Madam Malkin had appeared behind a very large and over filled rack full of plain black robes. She was a somewhat short witch with a very happy smile on her face. She wore green robes with pins stuck all in the left arm from where she had ben pinning up students robes. Her hair was a mousy brown colour and was in a bun sitting on top of her head. She motioned for them to come closer and they did so.

"Names?"

"Uh, James. James Potter."

"Good afternoon, James! I remember when your parents were in here, buying their robes." She smiled and started pulling robes down from the rack. She threw one to James and he put it on.

She started pinning the robe at odd places.

"Ow!" a voice said over to the left of them. James turned to look.

Another first-year coming to get robes. He was about their height with shaggy brown hair and honey-brown eyes. He was wearing, well of course a plain black robe, but underneath he was wearing a gray sweater and brown corduroys.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Remus dear," the witch apologized as she pulled the pin out from where she poked him. She was wearing light blue robes and her hair was graying. She was a rather plump witch; she was Madam Malkin's assistant.

"It's quite all right, just took me by surprise." he turned to look at James and Sirius who was still looking at him. He turned a slight red colour.

Sirius walked over to him, held out a hand and said, "Hullo! My name's Sirius, Sirius Black, and that over there," he turned and pointed, "Is my best friend James Potter." He gave a wide grin and turned back to Remus.

James waved and Madam Malkin poked him with a pin.

"Hold still!"

"Sorry.."

"Hi. I'm Remus Lupin. Are you two first years too?"

"Yup," Said Sirius smiling.

James hopped down from the stool where he was standing and Madam Malkin called for Sirius.

He perched himself atop the stool and put on a robe. Madam Malkin started pinning his robes.

"Nice to meet you, Remus. How old are you?" James asked, walking over to Remus to shake his hand, smiling.

"11." He said grinning, "My birthday is in a month!" he added quickly and was poked, yet again, with another pin.

"Sorry," muttered the witch.

"Hey, um, would you like to accompany us in going gallivanting across Diagon Alley in search for the rest of our school supplies?" asked James, looking hopeful.

"Me mum's in Flourish and Blotts buying my books."

"My parents are there too. Told us not to leave until they came back."

"Yeah, mine too." he smirked.

"Done," said the little witch that was pinning up Remus' robes. "That'll be ten Galleons for all your robes."

Remus dug down into his pockets and pulled out a handful of gold. He counted off ten Galleons and handed them to the witch. About that time, Madam Malkin finished Sirius' robes.

"Twenty Galleons for the lot." She said with an outstretched hand. James and Sirius each gave her ten shining gold Galleons.

"Would it be all right if we were to stay in here and wait?" he asked, looking into the shop owner's sparkling eyes.

She nodded and went behind the counter and deposited the Galleons, half of which disappeared.

Moments later, James' parents were at the door, piles of books in hand. A lone witch stood behind them carrying books as well.

"Hello, there dear. Get all your robes?" the witch asked, clearly Remus' mother.

"Yes, mum."

"Ah, James. We figured that you two would've met each other. This is Remus' mother. We met her in Flourish and Blotts."

"Hello." She was wearing faded purple robes with a matching hat covering the top of her auburn head of curly hair.

James and Sirius returned the hello, each introducing themselves.

"Well, shall we go to Ollivanders now?" Mr. Potter said, making himself known. One can only suppose that he was feeling left out of the conversation.

Mrs. Potter and Mrs. Lupin nodded. They turned and walked out, talking amongst themselves behind their stack of books.

Mr. Potter held the door open with his foot, balancing his stack of Sirius' books in both arms.

Soon they were headed down the street to Ollivander's Wand shop. The sign over head read: 'Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C.' in bright, new gold letters.

They reached the door and Mr. Potter leaned over to talk to James.

"We're going to the Apothecary to get your other things. We'll leave your books here so we won't have to carry them around." Mr. Potter, Mrs. Potter and Mrs. Lupin, all set the stacks of books down inside Ollivanders.

A wizard made a loud coughing noise, appearing from behind shelves containing slender boxes and boxes of wands.

He smiled and his face gathered more wrinkles. His hair was beginning to turn white and his light blue eyes had begun to lose their luster.

"Buying new wands today?" he asked, moving over in front of the three boys.

They all nodded.

"Very well, then." He pulled box after box down from the shelf, muttering things under his breath. James caught a few and recognized them as "No," or "That'll never work," or "Too swishy."

He pulled down a black box and opened it. He pulled out its wand and handed it to James. "Mahogany, 11", pliable. I say, a little more powerful and excellent for transfiguration."

James held it and felt a warm tingling sensation. Purple sparks flew from the top of it, bouncing off the high ceiling in little fireworks.

"Ah! Right on the first try! I'm never wrong, you see," he said, a wide grin spreading across his face. "That'll be seven Galleons, please."

James handed Mr. Ollivander seven gold Galleons and stepped back and sat on the spindly old chair that was sitting in the corner, waiting on Remus and Sirius to get their wands.

Mr. Ollivander picked up one of the boxes from the floor, looked at it for a moment and handed the wand to Sirius.

"Ebony, dragon heartstring, 10""

Sirius gave it a wave and clearly, Mr. Ollivander had gotten it right on the first try again because purple fireworks were going off again.

He smiled at Remus and disappeared behind a shelf along the back wall. They heard boxes hitting the floor. He finally returned with a small black box.

"Holly, unicorn hair, 10". Unusual combination, but nice for defense," and once again, he had gotten his selection right and the room was again filled with purple sparks. "Ah! A new record! Three in one day, I say this is the best job ever!" he laughed and collected the Galleons from Sirius and Remus.

They said thank you and met their parents at the door. They picked up their books and hurried back onto the street.

Amidst all the muttering and conversation going on along the crowded street, James spotted the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. He turned to his mother to ask who it was, but as soon as he turned around, she was gone. He looked a little disheartened.

"Don't worry. Maybe you'll see her at Hogwarts.." Sirius said, patting James on the back.

"Yeah."

"I've invited Mrs. Lupin and Remus over for dinner," Mrs. Potter had turned around and told the three of them. They all smiled and gave shouts of excitement.

"How exactly are we going to get home..?" James asked, staring at the piles of packages in everyone's hands.

"Well, Remus and his mother are going to leave their things at their home and then come to our house soon afterwards. They don't live too far from here," he looked over at Mrs. Lupin, who gave a nod. "We are going by side-along Apparition, seeing as it would be too suspicious for us to be walking across London with oddly shaped packages," he chuckled.

They stepped out across the street, into a less populated area.

"Sirius, now hold on tight to my arm." Mr. Potter instructed, and he turned, and disappeared with a pop.

"So as Sirius did, dear." Mrs. Potter told James as he watched Remus and his mother walk off into the crowds. He grabbed onto his mothers arm, and turned. The feeling was immense. He felt himself jerk oddly at the stomach and felt as if he was going to be suffocated, then, almost as soon as it had happened, it stopped. They were standing at the door of the Potter house.

Mrs. Potter opened the door and held it for James.

Sirius and James took their school supplies up to their rooms.

While they were on the second stair, Mrs. Potter called from the kitchen. "Do wash up now and hurry. They'll be here any second."

James turned to Sirius and smiled. They found a new friend, and Remus had found two.


	3. Dinner and the Hogwarts Express

Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot & Prongs:  
the Story Behind the Marauders

Chapter 3: _Dinner and the Hogwarts Express_

"Remus seemed like a nice guy, don't you think, Sirius?" James turned around to look at him. "Sirius?"

"Yeah. Wait, I'm sorry. Wasn't paying attention."

"Yes I can see that." He looked down at the pile of Chocolate Frog cards on the floor. "I said, Remus seemed like a nice guy, don't you think."

Sirius nodded. "I'm hungry."

"Wonder if they're here yet." James began to get up from his bed when his someone knocked on the door.

"Apparently," Sirius said, stacking up James' cards.

James walked to the door and opened it, expecting his mother. Standing at the door instead was Remus, smiling.

"Aye, Hello! When did you get here?" James asked, standing back so Remus could enter his bedroom.

"Just a few minutes ago. Your mum t-told me where your room was. I hope you d-don't mind." he said glancing at his feet.

"No, not at all." he said, pushing a chair out from the corner of his room. He sat back down on his bed and Remus sat on the chair.

"Do you collect chocolate frog cards?" Sirius asked, grinning from the floor.

Remus looked very confused at this, but shook his head and said, "No. We don't have m-much money to buy extra stuff." He looked very embarrassed and stared, once again, down at his feet.

"No worries," James said, smiling, laying back on his bed to stare at the poster of his favourite Quidditch team. "I'll buy you a bunch on the Hogwarts express and we can trade if you have duplicates."

Remus looked up and smiled at James. "You don't have to do that."

"Yes I do. Just think of it as a.." he thought for a moment, "..special gift to our new friend."

"Friend? B-but.. you.. hardly know me."

"That's what you're here for." Sirius said, handing a few cards to Remus so he could look at them. "That's Dumbledore. Turn it over, then turn it back and he disappears. Can't be there all the time, now can he?" He laughed at his own joke, but quickly stopped when no one else was laughing.

"So, did me mum ever say when dinner was going to be ready while you were down there?"

"Yes. But it took a while to actually _find_ your room. That was twenty minutes ago. Said it'd be ready in about thirty."

"Mhm.. My room is kinda hard to find. Advanced magic you know. Put a spell on it so only if you _wanted_ to find my room you could, but if you were just walking through the hallway, you'd never be able to see it."

"Ingenious, eh? It was my idea." Sirius had gotten up from the floor and was walking to the door. He opened it and inhaled the sweet aromas of the food downstairs. "Yep. I'd say it was about ready."

"I'll have you know, Sirius Black, that it was _my_ idea for the spell.." he walked out of the room. Sirius held back Remus until James was out of sight.

"It was my idea, but," he held a finger to his lips, signaling to be quiet about it, "he thinks he winning." He let out a laugh and Remus joined in.

When they arrived downstairs, the smell of prime rib, mashed potatoes-

"Oh, great. Enchanted green beans again?" Sirius whined.

Yes, enchanted green beans, leftover vegetable soup, and a delicious blackberry cobbler made their mouth water so much that they could hardly wait.

The table had stretched to allow three more chairs once again. Sitting at the head of the table was Mr. Potter, dressed in his good dining robes made of purple velvet with just a hint of sparkle to it. Mrs. Potter was sitting at the opposite end wearing black robes and a emerald green skirt, Mrs. Lupin was sitting on the left of Mrs. Potter, a man that they had never seen, only to assume that it was Remus' father was sitting next to Mrs. Lupin and three chairs on the opposite side to seat Remus, James, and Sirius. Seven white china materialized in front of them full of delicious, steaming food when the three sat down.

Remus looked longingly at the plate and looked at his mother, who was already starting to eat, but only because Mrs. Potter had begun.

She looked at Remus and nodded, at which point he started to cut his slab of prime rib, juices flowing across his plate, and stuck a piece in his mouth. His face spread into a wide grin. One can only imagine the delights of a warm meal when you haven't much to begin with.

You see, the Lupin's weren't exactly the richest wizarding family. They barely had money to get by with, just enough to afford all of Remus' school supplies.

Silence lingered as forks clattered against plates, glasses making thumping noises against the wood table when sat down, and knives magically cutting the prime rib, serving the second piece to Remus, who dug in as soon as it touched his plate.

James had never seen such behaviour before, but soon shrugged it off. He paid no attention to it, but considered it normal. He understood, but Sirius had quite a time trying to whisper in James' ear.

"Sirius, knock it off!" he whispered harshly back at Sirius.

"But-"

"No!" he quickly shoved another piece of meat into his mouth to prevent further conversation.

Mr. Potter broke the silence. "So, Mr. Lupin," he looked at the man to the right of him. "What do you do for a living?"

Remus looked as if he lost his appetite.

Mr. Potter felt as if he had said something wrong.

The man in the faded black robes laid his knife down. "I work at the Leaky Cauldron," he hesitated. "In the back."

"Oh." Mr. Potter shoved a forkful of mashed potatoes in his mouth.

"It's a new job." Mrs. Lupin chimed in. "Where do you work, Mr. Potter? If I may ask."

"Oh, the, uh, Ministry of Magic. I could put a good word in for you, Mr. Lupin, if you would like." he smiled warmly.

Mr. Lupin considered this for a moment and said "I like my job very much, thank you. I don't need anyone's help." He began eating again, very fast.

James looked over at Remus who's eyes were turning red.

"M-may I be excused, Mrs. Potter?"

"Yes, of course dear."

"Where's your bathroom?"

"Down the hall," she pointed with a fork, "and to the left. You can't miss it."

Remus quickly got up and headed toward the bathroom, walking rather quickly.

James looked at Sirius, who's face had now gotten an expression of understanding. He got up from the table and headed down the hall.

"James? Where-" but his mother broke off her sentence, shook her head and began eating again.

James tapped on the bathroom door. He could hear sounds of sniffing on the other side. "Can I talk to you?" he asked at last.

"You don't l-like me, d-do you..?" the voice called from the other side of the door.

"Yes we do. I do. You seem very nice to me. Listen," he said, pressing closer to the door. "It doesn't matter what kind of job your father has. It matters who you are. I like you. That's why I called you my friend."

The sniffing stopped for a while. James didn't dare move, but just stood there.

"You m-mean it?" Remus asked, a hint of hopefulness in his voice.

"Yes." James said, smiling to himself, "I mean it."

The door slowly began to open and James backed away. He pulled a tissue from his pocket and handed it to Remus.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it. What're friends for, anyway?" he smiled warmly and Remus wiped his eyes. "Back to dinner then?"

Remus nodded and followed James back to the table. Remus didn't look at or talk to his father the rest of the night.

At the end of dinner, after all the plates had vanished and all conversation had ceased, he looked at his mother and asked, "Hey, mum. Is it alright if I spend the night? If it's alright with Mr. and Mrs. Potter of course.."

His mother looked over at Mrs. Potter who said, "Oh, we'd be _delighted _to have him stay!" Then she looked over at her husband, who thought for a very long time, then, reluctantly, said, "Alright. He can stay. As long as he behaves."

James and Sirius gave shouts of joy. Remus beamed with excitement.

"What about your things?" his mother asked.

"I have plenty of clothes he can wear," James added quickly, before Remus even had time to wipe the happy expression off his face.

Mrs. Lupin nodded and Mr. Lupin stood to leave.

"Thank you for that delightful dinner, Mrs. Potter." Mr. Lupin tipped his hat to her. "And thank you," his voice stiffened, "for letting us into your home." He looked at Mr. Potter, who smiled and said nothing else but:

"It was my pleasure."

Remus got up and hugged his mother, then, very cautiously stepped over to his father. "Goodnight." he said, staring at the floor.

"Goodnight," he said, patting him on the back.

"Come on, Remus! Want to play exploding snap?" Sirius called, hanging over the banister.

Remus turned around, nodded and kissed his mother on the cheek. He took off towards the stairs and followed Sirius into James' bedroom, who was pulling out a big box.

They played exploding snap for nearly three hours until Mrs. Potter knocked on the door and told them to go to bed, and left a small portable cot for Remus. She said goodnight to the three and soon they drifted off into a dreamland, imagining what their first year at Hogwarts would be like. How many friends they would make, or how many enemies.

James thought about the girl he saw, and prayed silently that she, too, was there for Hogwarts. Sirius, on the other hand, was dreaming of all the trouble he could possibly get into, and Remus, of warm beds, hot meals, and his two new friends, James and Sirius.

- - - - -

The next morning, at about 9:45am, Mr. Potter came walking through the back door, into the kitchen.

"Lovely day, really. Nice weather for the trip to Hogwarts. Just hope it stays like this," he said as he walked across the floor. He kissed his wife on the cheek, sat down in one of the five vacant chairs, and spread out the latest copy of the _Daily Prophet_.

"Anyone we know, dear?" Mrs. Potter called, turning over strips of bacon without even touching them.

"Not today, Bella."

The room was silent for a few minutes, with the exception of bacon frying and Mr. Potter turning pages in the _Daily Prophet_.

"Hold up, listen to this," he said, laying the paper across the table. "_'The Minister of Magic has sent a fellow Muggle Alchemist, specialized in her field, to teach Alchemy at Hogwarts. Professor Wren Monty, along with a very qualified authority at the Ministry of Magic, Ronald Dante, have very high credentials in their field. Alchemy, the study of transmutation, is being offered to first years as well. Special books will be needed, but as this article came out a bit late, a special classroom set has been purchased by the Ministry of Magic. Mr. Ronald Dante is also a Muggle, but have been sworn to secrecy about our world, just as the other alchemists have. He has been sent to Hogwarts to observe teachers and students in their studies. More information on page 6.'_" He stopped reading and turned to look at Mrs. Potter. _" _I wonder if James and Sirius knows about this."

"Best not tell them, or they'll want to investigate it."

"Best not tell us what?" James said, already dressed, scratching his head. Sirius and Remus followed.

"Never you mind. Have a good night, Remus?" Mrs. Potter said, watching the frying pan as it laid three pieces of bacon each on everyone's plate.

"Oh, yes, thank you," he smiled, picked up a piece of bacon and took a bite.

Sirius had his head propped up on his arm, already falling asleep again.

"Ah, post's here," said Mrs. Potter. "Go get it, please, James."

He sighed and got up from the table. He took the letters from beautiful brown tawny owl. He noticed one of its feathers were loose. Most likely from wind. He plucked it and turned it in his fingers. A mad grin spread across his face.

"Here you go, mum." He sat back down and looked at Remus. He showed him the feather and mouthed the words 'Watch this,' and grinned. He took the feather and stuck it up Sirius' nose. At that time, his head fell off his hand and he sneezed right into his plate.

"What in blue blazes was _that_ for!" he yelled, jerking the feather out of his nose.

Remus and James were deep in a fit of uncontrollable laughter. Even Mr. Potter had to raise his newspaper to laugh.

"Not funny. I sneezed on my plate." He wiped his plate with his shirt sleeve.

James stuck a piece of toast in his mouth to stop himself from laughing and managed to say 'sorry' in between bites.

"Right you are." Sirius looked annoyed. He pretended to yawn, then, just as James had put his glass of milk to his lips, Sirius smacked him in the back of his head.

Milk shot across the table.

"ALRIGHT! Enough you two! Knock it off!" Mrs Potter demanded.

It was clear that Mr. Potter was still laughing at the boys little antics because the paper he was holding was shaking.

"Listen to your mother, James," he said, amusement leaking all over his voice. He let out a little laugh.

"Don't encourage them, William," she said, waving a wand at him from behind the paper.

"I'm not, dear," he turned a page.

"Got all your things packed? Oh, and Remus, darling, your mum dropped by with all your things. They're in the den," she motioned off towards the dark room.

She pointed her wand at the milk on the table, waved her wand and all the milk had disappeared into the tip of her wand.

Mr. Potter folded up his paper and looked at his watch. He jumped in his chair and said, "GREAT SCOTT! 10:35! Hurry up or we'll be late!"

Sirius and James quickly choked down all their food and ran upstairs to fetch their things. Remus followed to help.

About 10 minutes later Mr. Potter yelled from downstairs.

"We have 15 minutes to get you on that train! If you're late, you're not staying here all term, James!"

The three of them came running down the stairs and each in turn, including Remus, gave Mrs. Potter a light kiss on the cheek goodbye.

"Thank you, Mrs. Potter," Remus said, smiling.

"Oh you're quite welcome, my dear. Have a great year, now hurry along."

They all hurried out through the front door and soon was on their way to King's Cross.

Once at King's Cross, they took turns going through the barrier separating platforms nine and ten to get onto platform nine and three quarters. Sitting there in front of them was the most beautiful scarlet and black train they had ever seen.

"Yes. That's the Hogwarts Express." Mr. Potter sighed and hurried them off to the ticket booth.

"Tickets?" asked the plump little wizard who sat inside.

"Uh, yeah I have them somewhere." He searched the pockets of his robes. "Aha! Found them." He heaved a sigh of relief and the ticket master checked each one.

"Very well. You may board."

"Now, boys. I want you to have a very good year and please try not to get into trouble."

"We will," they all said at once.

They left their luggage with the porter and stepped aboard. The long corridor was crowded with a variety of students. The larger ones obviously being higher than second year. Some were wearing silver badges on their robes with the letter 'P' on them.

"Move along! Move along! We'll be leaving any moment now and no one can be in the corridor when we start moving!" the tall, blond haired, blue eyed prefect called.

The three quickly found a compartment. They sat down and looked out the window to see if they could spot Mr. Potter. When they had found him, the train whistle blew long, loud, and clear and echoed off through the distance.

They opened the tiny window at the top and hung out of it, waving furiously to Mr. Potter. He spotted them and waved back.

When all the cars evened out, they sat down.

"I'm so excited!" Remus said, bouncing in his seat.

Sirius gave him an odd look, but shrugged it off and stared out the window.

James pulled out his collection of Chocolate Frog cards and started sorting them. Again.


	4. Late Arrivals

Chapter 4: _Late Arrivals_

A few minutes of silence went by, and then there was a knock on the glass of the compartment door.

James looked up from his cards spread across the vacant seat and recognized the girl immediately.

"Sirius!" he gasped, turning around to look at him.

"What?" he answered, but James had gotten up to open the compartment door.

"Hi," he said.

"Hello. Do you mind if I sit with you? Everywhere else is full."

"No, not at all," he motioned toward the seat scattered with Chocolate Frog cards, but she sat in his seat instead.

"Thanks. My name is Lily."

She was a very pretty young girl, 11, with reddish-brown hair and brilliant green eyes.

'_Lily.._' James thought, '_Pretty name..'_ "I'm, uh.." He snapped his fingers, hoping his name would come to him.

"James," Sirius said from the corner, grinning.

"What?" he said, turning to Sirius.

"That's your name isn't it?"

"Wha- OH, yeah!"

Lily laughed at him and his ears turned pink.

"Yes, my name is James," he said, trying to smile, "James Potter."

"I'm Remus Lupin," he said, looking up from one of his new school books.

She smiled and said hello. "And you are?" she said, looking over to where Sirius was, obviously paying no attention at all.

"What, huh, sorry."

"Your name," she said, waiting for an answer.

"Oh, I'm Sirius."

"Sorry?"

"Sirius Black. Sirius with an 'i' instead of an 'e'."

"Oh!" she laughed at herself. "Sorry about that. What're you doing?" she asked James, who was sitting on the floor, playing with his cards.

"Chocolate Frog cards," he looked up and smiled at her. She smiled back.

Sirius started laughing at him. Just then, the lunch cart came by.

"Anything off the trolley, dears?" the young witch, about mid-twenties with wavy brown hair, said.

"Mhm," James mumbled. "I'll take all the Chocolate Frogs, a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, and uh, what do you all want?"

"I'm fine," Remus said.

He looked over at Lily.

"Oh, that's quite all right."

Sirius, on the other hand got up and started examining the cart. James pushed him aside and said, "Hey! You buy your own."

"Nine Sickles," the witch said, and James handed over nine shiny silver Sickles and picked up the entire display of Chocolate Frogs.

James threw the box of Chocolate Frogs into Remus' lap.

"I told you I'd buy you some."

"Some, but not the lot of them!" he looked astounded and opened a box.

"Oh, careful. They've only got one jump in them."

It hopped onto Remus' jacket and he caught it.

"Mmm," he said, swallowing the frog whole. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it. What card have you got?"

"Remus took out the card and flipped it over. "Dumbledore!" he shouted.

He continued to open the boxes and gave Lily, James, and Sirius (sitting beside his pile of candy) the chocolate frogs after he ate his fill.

"So," James said, opening his shoe box of cards. "Who do you want to trade?"

They sat there and traded cards for at least an hour.

The scenery outside the train changed constantly, gradually getting darker. They passed over lakes, through a dark forest and through a field spotted with cows.

Everyone looked like they were having a good time. Laughing, telling jokes, getting better acquainted with Lily, then, all of a sudden, the train stopped.

James popped his head out of the compartment.

The Prefect they had saw earlier was walking down the corridor.

"Is everyone all right?" he called. No one answered. "Please stay calm and do not go out of your compartments. We are currently trying to get information on about why the train has stopped. We will come back to inform you later."

But he never came back.

About another hour later, another Prefect opened the compartment door.

"We'll be arriving in a half an hour. Please change into your robes," and she left before James had a chance to ask why the train had stopped.

Fifteen minutes later, they were all in their robes and Remus and James was putting up their cards, Remus looking sad that he had to put them away, but happy that they had at last reached Hogwarts.

Soon after, the train started to slow down again, and finally came to a stop.

"We're here!" shouted Remus, his nose pressed against the window.

Sirius laughed. "Come on, you guys. We gotta go now."

Sirius walked out of the compartment, James, Remus and Lily following close behind.

"I'm going to go find my friend, Scarllette, ok?" Lily called from the back. "I'll see you guys later!"

They stepped off the train into a crowd of students, all compacted together because there was little room.

"Don't worry, you'll see her again," Sirius said, slapping James on the back, almost knocking him over.

"Yeah. You're right," he said.

"Firs' years, over here! Firs' years!"

They all turned in the direction the voice was coming from.

There, amidst a crowd of anxious first years was the biggest man they had ever seen in their entire life. He wore a huge jacket with pockets you could easily fit a goblin into, carried a lantern, and had bushy black hair and a wild beard. Twice as tall as any normal man, and five times as wide.

Sirius' mouth dropped. "Wow," he said, still staring.

"Come on now, hurry it up!" he called again.

They all walked over toward the crowd, their eyes still on the man.

"Follow me, then," he said and turned toward the lake. "Five to a boat only, please. Don't want yer to be sinkin' now do we?" he said with a laugh.

"James!" Lily called, dragging behind her a girl her age with long dark brown hair and brown eyes. The girl took off her glasses and rubbed them on her robes. "This is my friend, Scarllette! The one I was telling you about. This is James, Remus, and that's Sirius, with an 'i', not an 'e'," she laughed and they all said hi.

She seemed a bit shy at first, but managed a hello and stood quietly beside Lily, looking in the direction of Remus. She went red when his eyes met hers, and they both looked down immediately.

"Come on now, in a boat ye go!" the giant of a man said, pushing all five of them toward a boat with one very large hand.

They all climbed in and soon all the boats were slowly rowing themselves across the dark watered lake, the reflection of Hogwarts shining brightly in the water.

The night air was cool as they drifted toward the school, while the castle towered high and majestically into the midnight blue sky, with stars strewn across it, shining brightly. The Milky Way was just over head and was as bright as ever. The moon was out, adding more light to the lake in addition to the little lanterns that hung on the ends of long poles at the front of the boats.

Often, many of the first years screamed because they thought they saw giant purple tentacles rising out of the water.

The giant reassured them that their eyes were playing tricks on them, but as soon as they reached the shore, he told them that their eyes were just fine, and that there was, in fact, a giant squid in the lake.

A few more shouts rose into the air and one girl with dirty blond hair and a short button nose yelled, "I knew it!"

"Din' want ye to be frightened or anything. Besides. I think 'e likes you lot," he said smiling. "By the way, I am Rubeus Hagrid. Keeper of keys and grounds at Hogwarts. You can call me Hagrid though, everyone does. On we go, then."

They all turned and made their way to the dark castle glowing in the moon light.

Hagrid pushed open the massive wrought iron gates and held them open.

"Have a good year!" he called after them, closing the gates as the last of the students ran through as though he would eat them if they didn't run fast enough.

Remus wearily looked at the moon and sighed.

"What?" James asked, looking from Remus' eyes, following them to the moon.

Remus shook his head and looked away.

The crowd pushed their way through the entrance and waiting for them at the top of the marble staircase was one of the professors in emerald green robes with a black pointed hat sitting atop her neatly cared for black hair. Glasses on the end of her nose, she looked over top them and smiled warmly.

"In a few moments, you will be walking in through those doors," she motioned to the entrance of the Great Hall, "and be sorted into your Houses. Now the four Houses are as followed: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin." She looked over the crowd, some of them shaking hands with other students, an expression of confidence on their faces, while others looked scared and nervous like they were about to faint.

She turned around, walked up to the doors and pushed them open.

Several gasps filled the air and the professor walked quickly up the middle to the front.

Four tables filled the gigantic room, each one seated dozens and dozens of second through seventh years in black robes and black pointed hats, like the ones that were called for on their robes list.

At the very front of the Great Hall, a very long table sat perpendicular to the other tables. The big gold chair in the middle seated the long-haired Headmaster. To his right, was an empty chair, followed by seats filled with one half of the teachers, while the other side was seated the other half of the teachers.

In front of the them sat an old three-legged stool, and sitting on top of it was an old wrinkly hat.

"Line up along here please. Now when I call your names, please step up to be sorted." She picked up the old hat and released a finger holding the roll of parchment in the other hand. It rolled down to the floor and rolled off somewhere in front of a first year.

"Allen, Marietta" was the first to be sorted.

A rip near the brim of the hat opened up and seemed to be muttering to itself. The girl on the stool looked frightened and nearly fell of the seat when it shouted "Ravenclaw!"

The table of Ravenclaw's erupted into fits of applause and whistles. When the noise ceased, the next frightened first year stepped up.

Sirius fidgeted next to James.

"Are you ok?" he asked, looking as Sirius.

"Yeah, it's just.. the lot of my family has been in Slytherin. I don't want to be in Slytherin."

"Don't worry about it. You're good enough to be in Gryffindor!" He turned around and the Sorting Hat had yelled out "Hufflepuff!" and a girl with long black shining hair walked over to the table and sat down.

"Black, Sirius," the professor called and Sirius stared at James for a moment, shook off his nervousness and stepped up to the stool. He shut his eyes and the hat began to move.

"Yes, yes.. I see your family's been in Slytherin, but there's something different about you. Yes.. it's all here in your mind. All right then. Gryffindor!" the hat shouted and the Gryffindor table welcomed its fourth new Gryffindor of the night. Sirius looked relieved to get down from the chair. He shot a thumbs up at James, said good luck and James nodded.

Time seemed to have gotten a lot slower now that his name was coming up. It seemed that the Sorting Hat took a longer time on the next head as it had on the one before. He drifted off into space, looking around at the ceiling. It looked like the night sky, the stars above him twinkling merrily.

"It's bewitched you know. To look like the night sky," whispered a voice over next to his ear. It was Lily.

He looked at her and smiled.

"Evans, Lily."

"Oh, dear," she said, and she walked to the front of the crowd.

"Good luck!" James yelled after her. She turned and smiled.

She sat there for a minute or two and then the hat yelled "Gryffindor!"

James looked relieved that she wasn't in Slytherin, but very, very pleased that he'd get to see her more often now that she was in Gryffindor.

He stood gazing at the ceiling for a few more minute, seeming to be in a sort of trance.

"LaBelle, Scarllette," she called and Scarllette walked up to the stool. A few seconds later, the hat called out "Gryffindor!"

"Lupin, Remus," she called and later he was sorted into Gryffindor with Sirius, Lily and Scarllette.

He stood and thought for a moment and the professor called for "Pettigrew, Peter" and the Sorting Hat placed him in Gryffindor.

"Potter, James," she called, looking around the crowd.

He wanted to walk, but his legs wouldn't move. Finally he found them and stepped slowly up the steps, almost tripping on the first one. He sat down and she placed the hat on his head.

He sat for a while, for what seemed like an eternity to him and finally, after much muttering to itself, the hat yelled out "Gryffindor!"

A broad grin stretched across his face and he walked over to the Gryffindor table and sat in between Sirius and Remus.

It felt good to sit down after standing for so long.

"That felt like an eternity up there!" James gasped, trying to get his breath. A half dozen or so more first years were sorted.

"Snape, Severus," she called and he was sorted into Slytherin.

"Severus? What an.. interesting name," Sirius said.

"Did any of you happen to look up?" James said, once again, tilting his head back as far as it would go.

Remus and Sirius did so too, as well as a few more first years who had overheard.

"It's enchanted. Lily told me," he said, returning his head to face the boy sitting in front of him. "James Potter," he said, smiling. The boy across from him looked cautiously at James from beady black eyes.

"Peter Pettigrew. Nice to meet you," he said.

A few minutes afterwards, the sorting was finished, and the room fell silent.

James turned around to see Dumbledore standing in front of a large podium, looking around the room, with a smile on his face and a twinkle in his light blue eyes.

"To our new students, welcome and to our returning students, welcome back." He said this in the same calm voice he had spoken in at the Potter's house when he came for dinner. "Please allow me to start off the new school term by first saying -" but his sentence was interrupted by a loud crash signifying that both of the enormous doors to the Great Hall had been thrown open.

Everyone turned to look in the direction of the noise, and coming from it was a man with slicked back black hair with a cold look in his eyes as his black robes billowed behind him as he walked. Following him was a woman in her early twenties, with long black hair down to her waist, flipping behind her, wearing long midnight blue velvet robes, her big brown eyes gleaming, but her expression did her soft features no justice whatsoever.

"So sorry that we're late, Professor," he said with a sneer. "I tried to board the Hogwarts Express earlier, but they wouldn't let me on."

Dumbledore smiled, but said nothing.

"So _that's_ what happened," Remus said to James.

"I am Ronald Dante, sent by the Ministry. They asked me to give you this." He pulled out a roll of parchment from a pocket inside his robes and handed it over to Dumbledore with an odd sort of cold half grin.

Dumbledore read it and slowly rolled it up. "Very well," he said, finally, after a brief pause. "Professor McGonagall, two chairs please." He turned to the professor wearing the emerald green robes. Two hard backed chairs, much like the ones all the other teachers were sitting in materialized out of the end of her wand. "Students, I would like to introduce to you, Mr. Ronald Dante, and our new Alchemy teacher, Professor Monty."

Some clapped while other stared at the strange visitors.

"What's Alchemy?" Remus leaned over to James and whispered in his ear.

"I don't know, but I suppose we're going to find out.." he said, not taking his eyes off the man called Dante.

"Where was I?" Dumbledore asked and thought for a moment.

James looked down eagerly at the golden plates that had materialized sometime between the time he looked up at Dumbledore and the time he looked back down.

"Ah, yes. Tuck in," and with that, the golden plates were filled with hot, steaming food and bowls and platters and all sorts of dishes were sitting in front of them filled to capacity with freshly prepared food. James' eyes widened.

"I have no clue what to eat first," Sirius said, looking rather confused, stroking his chin with one hand and making several attempts at trying to figure out what to eat first with the other.

James laughed at him, grabbed a fork in one hand, the knife in the other and began eating.

"But, wait," Peter said, stopping midway into lifting a chicken leg up to his mouth. "Wasn't he going to say something else?"

Sirius shrugged.

After dinner had melted away and all the delicious deserts disappeared, Dumbledore rose from his seat.

The room was quiet once again.

"Supper was delightful." He patted his stomach and smiled. "First of term starts tomorrow and I want to encourage you all to get a very good nights sleep in your warm and cozy beds that await you and your many, many dreams. Good night." His eyes twinkled as he sat back down and watched the students and staff leave.

The sound of the benches scraping the floor rang throughout the Great Hall and Prefects were shouting their Houses names.

James caught sight of one yelling "Gryffindors! Follow me!" and James, Sirius, Remus, Scarllette, and Peter followed him up the many steps, taking special care to skip the disappearing step as the Prefect had told them to do so.

The Gryffindor Prefect was the same one they saw on the Hogwarts Express. The tall, blond haired, blue-eyed one that commanded for everyone to get into their compartments before the train started.

At last, they came to a stop at a portrait of a particularly fat lady in a frilly pink dress.

The portrait came to life. "Password?" she asked.

"Butter rum," said the Prefect promptly and the portrait swung forward revealing a hole to enter the common room. "Well come on, get in," he said, waiting until every last student had entered and then he climbed in and the portrait swung back on its hinges to conceal the hole.

Inside was warm and filled with students, a fire burning brightly in the fireplace with old, big armchairs and a couch in front of it.

Scattered about the room were more of the same armchairs and a few desks in the corner for studies.

"This is your common room," the Prefect began, "the boy's dormitory's are up the stairs to the left, girls, the same and to the right."

All of them walked up the stairs, the boys turning left, the girls turning right. Inside the boy's dormitory's were large, four poster beds with curtains around them. Their trunks had been brought up and placed at the ends of their beds. Warm pajamas were laying on the turned down beds as a fire in the grate in the center of the room lit the room with a soft glow.

Remus jumped into his bed. "Wow. It's soft.." he said, throwing the covers over top of his head.

They got their pajamas on and got into bed.

"You know," said Peter from his bed next to Sirius', "I have a feeling that this is going to be a very interesting year."

They all nodded and said goodnight to each other, but little did they know exactly _how_ interesting it was going to be . . .


	5. Ronald's Interference

Chapter 5: _Ronald's Interference_

A few days had gone by after the sorting and, so far, all the classes went by, undisturbed, with the exception of James and Sirius barging in Transfiguration one day, late. But today was not going to be an ordinary day. The sun had disappeared behind a very large, dark gray rain cloud. The air had grown quite cold, unusually cold for September, and raindrops spattered the window noisily in their decent from the sky.

So what was so unusual? Today was the very day that Ronald was to make his first rounds about the school, sitting in on classes, taking notes on teachers and otherwise, being annoyingly nosy and giving out detentions for absurd reasons.

James, Sirius, Remus and Peter were all in the library working on the already growing amounts of homework that had been given out over the course of the week. Well, at least Remus was, and Peter made an attempt to, only to be distracted by Sirius' constant prods in the ribs to give him answers.

"Find it yourself, Sirius," Remus said with an annoyed tone.

"But it's so much easier to ask for the answer, and lay off Remus. I was asking Peter."

"Find it yourself," Peter added with a smile.

James was sitting on the far side of the three, staring off somewhere into space, with an opened book in front of him on the completely wrong page, plus it was upside down.

"Psst.. Oy, James!" Sirius poked the half-awake boy.

No response. Sirius poked harder. Still, no response. Then, he saw what James was concentrating on.

Sitting across the aisle was the beautiful young redhead, Lily Evans, sitting with Scarllette.

Sirius' face took on a sly grin.

"Ah, I see," he whispered into James' ear. Sirius looked down at James' notebook.

Inside were dozens of hearts, encircling the letters J.P. & L.E' spread across the paper. Sirius turned a page and there was a partially written love note.

"Hey, Remus, check this out," he said, picking up the notebook and reading the note aloud. "_Lily, your eyes are as green as freshly cut grass, your hair, as fragrant as a dozen roses, your skin, as smooth as silk._"

Peter laughed.

Sirius grabbed a quill and sloppily finished the letter.

"_I... love... you... Love... James... Potter,_" he said as he wrote the last words. He scribbled a few more and folded it up as James regained consciousness.

"Oy! What are you doing?" James said, yanking the notebook from Sirius' reach.

"This." He got up and walked over to Lily and handed her the note. "This is from your good buddy, James," he said with a grin as he walked back across the aisle.

"What did you give her?" James demanded to know.

"Ssh!" Madame Pince walked by and whispered harshly.

James nodded and she walked back.

"Your love note," Sirius said, watching Lily unfold the note and read it. He saw her blush and then she turned mad.

She stormed across the aisle with the note in hand. "What is the meaning of this, Potter?" she asked.

"I - it wasn't - Sirius did it!" James sputtered.

Lily stomped off with Scarllette laughing behind her.

"Great. She hates me now. Thank you, Sirius," James said, laying his head down on the upside down book.

"Maybe if you two had just done your work, this wouldn't have happened," Remus suggested.

James shot him a look.

"I was just saying," Remus said. "Sorry."

"Don't be," James said, sighing and pulling his notebook over to him and flipping his book over. "What-" he began.

"295," Remus said.

"Thanks." James looked out of the window. The rain had eased up and was now coming down in tiny raindrops, and the sun had managed to find a hole in the clouds. He sighed and set his quill down on a piece of parchment. He quickly started scribbling down a few words.

It was silent for a while and them Remus looked at his watch and said:

"Great Scott! We have ten minutes to get to Defense Against the Dark Arts!"

The four of them got packed in a hurry and ran out of the library, Madame Pince following them, yelling at them to stop running.

"Hey, I just remembered.." Peter said, as they came to a stop in front of the portrait of the fat lady. "James, you owe Sirius two Sickles and Sirius, you owe James two Sickles."

"What? Why?" Sirius said, panting.

"The other day, you and James made a bet. James bet that you would get detention first. Well you both got a detention when you ran into Ronald, remember?"

"Oh, yeah.." Sirius said, rubbing his nose.

A couple of days before hand, the four was running down the hall to make it in time for Transfiguration when Ronald had opened a door and Sirius ran into it, giving him a bloody nose. Both Sirius and James had received detentions that day, cleaning the trophy room without magic.

"Quit squabbling, give each other two Sickles and give me the password!" cried the fat lady.

"Arachnid," Remus said and they went to their dorms.

James got out two silver Sickles and handed them to Sirius. Sirius handed them back.

"There we go," Sirius said.

They all stumbled down the stairs and through the common room. Several minutes later, they had arrived at the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom door.

Peter pushed it open and they took their usual four seats in the back.

A few minutes later, the professor walked down the steps leading from his office to his classroom.

His disheveled brown graying hair settled down in a heap on his head as he sat down in his chair behind his desk with a thud. He moaned and rubbed his knee. He stroked his goatee with the other hand.

"Did you finish your essays?" he asked in a rough but calm voice. His face crinkled up into a smile, the many wrinkles from his age gaining more along the way. The room was silent. "I'll take that as a yes. Bring them up to me, please."

The room was filled with the sound of chairs scraping the floor, talking and laughter. When the noise stopped, Professor Belby continued on with his lesson.

"Turn to page three hundred fifteen. Now today, we'll be studying the wonderful creature known as the Fwooper." He got up and hobbled over to the chalkboard containing a diagram of the funny looking bird. "Fwoopers are African birds with bright plumage. Popular for their quills because their feathers are so brightly colored. They seem harmless at first, but if exposed to its song for too long, the listener will be driven to insanity." He was cut off by the opening of his classroom door.

"Oh, don't mind me, Professor. Continue."

It was Ronald, doing his first rounds for the day.

Professor Belby nodded as Ronald began talking to one of the Slytherin's in the back.

"Now the Fwooper -"

"Fwoopers?" Ronald interjected.

"Yes, fwoopers," Professor Belby said.

"Shouldn't they be learning about, oh, I don't know.. werewolves?"

"Don't you think that would be a bit too advanced for first years? I mean, being at the beginning of the year and all?" Professor Belby seemed confident in his answer.

"True, but this seems like a very smart crowd."

"Well, I don't think so. Not that I don't think that my students can handle it, but it's not something I teach at the beginning of a year and I have taught many years, I assure you, Mr. Dante, that I know what I am doing." Professor Belby was beginning to get annoyed.

Ronald walked to the front of the class.

"What good is a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor if they don't teach their students _defense_ against the Dark arts? How do you know that your students aren't werewolves?"

"Well then, they wouldn't need defense against themselves now would they?" Professor Belby shot with a smile.

"Just a suggestion," Ronald huffed as he made his way back to the back of the classroom. "Continue."

"Very well. Now the _fwooper_," he continued, but was cut off again.

"Yes, yes, I think we know what its name is now, but if you don't mind me asking, which I'm sure you don't, do you? Never mind. Where does it hide when it spots a werewolf?" Ronald said, rather sarcastically, sitting with his legs crossed, his hands placed neatly atop his knee.

"It's a bird, sir. It flies," one courageous student said.

"Right, very good, Miss Brighton," Professor Belby smiled.

"I figured that out by that silly little drawing of it, which is quite lovely, by the way. Did you draw it? Never mind, but what if it has a hurt wing and cannot fly? Then what?" Ronald burst out again, switching legs and placing his hands back on his knee.

"You know," whispered Sirius to James, "Ronald kind of reminds me of a fwooper, and his song is driving me to insanity."

James laughed.

"I heard that!" Ronald said, standing up and slamming his fist down on the desk in which he was seated.

Sirius froze to his chair.

"Why don't I give a demonstration on how a werewolf might attack that silly little bird with a broken wing?" Ronald said, glaring at Sirius. He walked over in front of Sirius' desk. He grabbed Sirius' arm and Sirius yelped out in pain. "I look nothing like a bird."

"Could've fooled me, you know, with that nose. Let go of him!" James yelled, standing up.

Ronald's eyes flickered red. He turned his face downward and rubbed his nose. "My nose is fine!" The corner of his eye twitched and he pointed with his free hand toward the chalkboard. "I don't look like that.. that.. THING!" His ears burned with embarrassment from being called a bird. He released his grip on Sirius and took hold of James' and Sirius' ears. "Come! To my office!"

"Don't you think it wise to go to Dumbledore's office?" Professor Belby insisted.

"I don't have to answer to him," he said as he dragged the two boys from behind their desks. "Continue with your lesson." He walked out of the classroom and shut the door behind him. A few seconds later the door opened again and he said, "Oh, and.. don't forget to add werewolves to your lessons." He shut the door once more and disappeared to his office with James and Sirius.

The long walk to Ronald's office seemed to take forever. Down long, endless hallways, and into some of the deepest parts of the old castle. Pathways lit by only a few torches, and some, no torches at all.

At last, they reached his office and he pulled open the heavy wooden door and pushed James and Sirius in.

They fell onto the dirty Persian rug that was placed in front of Ronald's desk which, perched atop it, was a shiny ax.

James flinched.

Sirius was sitting up, holding his knee.

Ronald slowly shut the heavy door behind him. He was hidden by a shadow cast in the near dark room by a large armoire.

The heavy curtains on the windows were covered in dust, the sunlight managing to find its way in through cracks and tears in the curtains, spotting the rug and the desk with fragments of light.

The shelves on the bookcases lining the walls were filled with books on ancient torture devices, famous villains, and the sort. The armoire was filled with jars containing multicolored liquids with eyes, noses, ears, fingers and an array of body parts, some rather large ones at the top containing human heads.

"Like my office?" Ronald said, walking slowly to his desk where he sat down in an old leather armchair. "I find it rather quaint myself."

James stood and said nothing, his eyes darting around to room to try and find a way out.

Sirius drew himself up from the floor and looked at the desk, noticing the ax.

"Sir, I must ask," Sirius said, rather nervously in a high pitched, almost squeaky voice. "Have you ever killed anyone?" He pointed to the ax.

Ronald leaned forward and propped his head up on his desk with his arm. "Yes. Yes, I have." He pointed to the jars. He got up and circled around his desk, taking Sirius up in a one-armed hug and pulling him over to the armoire.

While Ronald was pointing to the many jars and describing all the messy details, James was over at the window.

Outside he could see the lake. The rain had cleared up now, and the sun was out. They were almost at ground level, but it had seemed that they had gone deep under the dungeons.

"That's nice and all.. but, I really don't want to see severed heads right now. I just want to get OUT of here.." Sirius said, pulling himself away from Ronald.

"Sirius," Ronald began, "You remind me of a younger, less good looking me!" Ronald grabbed Sirius, who had tried to dart away and pulled him up into a big hug, almost crushing Sirius.

"Your hurting me!" Sirius yelled. "JAMES!"

Turning around, James ran to Sirius and pulled him away from Ronald.

Ronald backed away and straightened his robe. "Ah, well. You're getting there." He smiled and sat back down at his desk.

"James! I don't want to be like him!" Sirius yelled, grabbing the collar of James' robes and pulling him right to Sirius' face.

"Calm down. I won't let you be like him."

"Good!" Sirius said, and he released his grip.

"In the mean time," James turned to Ronald, "Don't you think you're getting a little.. soft?"

"Soft? Me? Never!" Ronald cleared his throat. "Why don't you run along and play while I talk to Sirius here?" He got up and drug James to the door and opened it, throwing him out, closing the door behind James.

"HEY!" James yelled, banging his fists on the door. "LET ME IN!" he yelled. No answer.

James ran off to Dumbledore's office as quickly as he could.

The gargoyles at the entrance to Dumbledore's office asked for a password, but James didn't know the answer. Just then, Professor McGonagall came around the corner.

"Professor! Professor, I need to speak with Professor Dumbledore!" he said, trying to catch his breath.

"Well, whatever for, dear?" she said.

"It's Sirius."

"Oh, not again."

"No, Ronald has him."

"What? Why?" she asked, a worried look on her face.

"Well, we said some things to him in Defense Against the Dark Arts and now he's got him all along in his office.. with an ax!"

"An ax!" she proclaimed and she stood at the gargoyles and said 'chocolate frogs' to them.

They jumped aside, and the wall opened up. A large spiral staircase was beginning to make its way upward to his office and James jumped on it.

"Thanks, Professor."

"Anytime." She smiled.

"PROFESSOR!" James yelled when he reached the wooden door.

The door slowly opened and Dumbledore appeared behind it.

"Yes?" he said, slowly.

"Sirius! Ronald, in his office.. ax! Heads in jars, killing.. AND HE HUGGED HIM!" James stammered.

"What? Slow down, dear boy. I can't understand a word you're saying."

"Sorry.. Sirius is in Ronald's office. We got in trouble and he brought us there, then he kicked me out and Sirius is in there with him alone. And he's got an AX!"

Dumbledore pondered this for a while and said, "Very well," and followed James to Ronald's office.

Dumbledore knocked very softly three times and it opened slowly, revealing only Ronald's head.

"Ah, Dumbledore. Nice to see you," he smiled.

"DUMBLEDORE!" Sirius yelled from somewhere in the office.

Sirius jumped up and down behind Ronald, trying to force him out of his way so that he could run as fast and as far as he could away from Ronald and his dungeon for an office.

"Can we come in? Or rather.. can you come out?" Dumbledore asked Ronald.

"Sure," he said, and Sirius made a mad dash to the door.

James caught him by the neck of his robes and he stopped.

"Can I help you, Professor?" Ronald asked politely, but with a note of arrogance.

"Yes, I think you can. Could you please tell me why you were holding young Sirius hostage?"

"Hostage? I wasn't holding him hostage. I was simply.." he paused to find the word. "Befriending him."

"Are you sure it wasn't _beheading_ him?" James yelled anxiously.

"I haven't a clue what you're talking about," Ronald claimed.

"You have an ax in there! I knew what you were going to do!" James yelled.

"Settle down, James. An ax? I thought that it was clear that we were to have no weapons be brought in bya student or teacher." Dumbledore was strangely calm through all this.

"It's not a weapon, Professor, it's merely a decoration. Seems to be the theme of my room anyway." Ronald said, looking around at his office.

"Well, they're all right now. Can I be assured that nothing more will become of this?" Dumbledore asked.

"Certainly, but I can assure you that there was nothing to begin with. Only a few smart remarks. That's all." Ronald said, with an evil grin on his face.

"I will leave you to your work now. Boys, I think you ought to return to your classes now. I'll send Professor Belby a note later. Thank you for your time, Ronald."

"No problem, Professor." He walked back in his office and closed the door.

"Go on," Dumbledore said. "I have the strangest taste for some tea right about now. Ah, well. See you two later, then?"

"Yes," James said.

"James! He wants me to be his," he paused to swallow the lump in his throat. "His friend!"

James looked at Sirius oddly and gasped. "Well then, we need to stay far away from him as we possibly can. That means not going out when we don't need to."

"Yeah," Sirius nodded.

They finally reached the classroom, and at that time, the bell rang. They met Remus and Peter at the door.

"What happened?" Remus asked, wanting full details.

"I almost got my head chopped off!" Sirius said, rubbing his neck.

"Come on, let's get to the dorm before he comes looking for us," James said.

"Who?" Peter piped in.

"Ronald," Sirius said.

They all made their way up the staircases to the door, gave the fat lady her password and went up to the dorm where James and Sirius each gave accounts on what happened, Sirius', of course, being far more descriptive and interesting than James'.

"Wow," Peter exclaimed at Sirius ended his story, somehow ending up in the far corner of the room. "I'm glad you're still alive!"

"Yeah me too," he said, rubbing his neck once more. "The thought of him hugging me still sends chills down my spine."

James laughed. "Well, another day, another adventure, eh, guys?"

"Yeah!" they all exclaimed.

"Just.. when are you going to take _us _on an adventure?" Peter asked.

"Oh, don't worry, Peter," Remus said. "I have a feeling that we're going to be on quite a few adventures with them very soon. As for now, I have to go see Dumbledore." Remus' mood quickly changed and he seemed hurried and distraught.

"Uh.. Ok," Sirius said, and Remus left.

"Wonder what got into him?" James said.

"I don't know, but he was muttering something about moon charts in Defense while you were gone," Peter shrugged.

"Moon charts?" James asked.

"Yeah.. something like that."

"Must be for Astronomy or something," Sirius suggested.

"Yeah," James said. "I'm sure we'll find out later."

Peter and Sirius nodded and they went about their normal, if you can call it that, lifestyle.


End file.
